1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to stackable tote boxes and particularly to a corner-strengthening method of construction of tote boxes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is conventional to use returnable/reusable containers for the transportation of goods in commerce. Such containers, or so-called tote boxes, must be of a sufficiently stiff construction so as to be able to safely transport the goods contained therein without damage thereto. Furthermore, these tote boxes are frequently designed so as to be stackable for ease of transportation of a number of tote boxes. In order to be stackable, the corners of the tote boxes are typically reinforced and are utilized as the contact points between two stacked boxes.
It is also conventional to reinforce the corners of the tote boxes sufficiently such that the lowermost tote box of a stack of tote boxes can adequately support the load of the stacked tote boxes and goods therein without deformation of that lowermost tote box and resulting damage to the goods therein. Typically these strengthened tote box corners require an additional structural element residing within the corner, and additional fasteners such as rivets or the like to secure the corner structural element to the box corner itself. These additional fasteners add material costs and manufacturing steps to the tote box thereby resulting in a more expensive tote box.
It has therefore been one object of the present invention to provide for a tote box corner stiffening structural element which can be incorporated into the tote box corner during the assembly operation but which does not require any additional fasteners such as rivets or the like to secure the stiffening element to the tote box.
Another object of the present invention has been to reduce the total number of mechanical fasteners used in the construction of a tote box.
A further object of the present invention has been to reduce the amount of time required to assemble a tote box.